Attended 2 meet ups with about 10-12 of Okinawa's fighting game players, hosted by xero15 (who has a sick Spider-Man team in Marvel) at his (soon to not be) place.
Of course, it was my obligation to bring along my copy of KOFXIII with me. The general consensus around the room was that they were all interested in the game, but none of them had really gotten into it and at most had only tried playing it for a few days. As I was explaining a lot of mechanics and demonstrating HD combos with several characters (Robert, Terry, Ryo, Takuma, Daimon, Kula and a little bit of Athena among others) several of them had expressed the feeling that had a person like me been around earlier, that they probably would've gotten into the game. Xero15 himself expressed an interest in playing Kula, and I was trying to recommend characters based around what his preferred playstyle was. Hopefully, I can set their desire to play KOF in stone before I leave the island in March, but my ability to do this is hampered due to the current liberty restrictions on military members in Okinawa, as well as really only having xero15 as the touchstone to get in touch with the other players.
As for how they felt about the game, they really seemed to enjoy it. The thing that seemed to stick out for a lot of them was the executional requirement. Foundational skills like c.B hitconfirms (which I myself had plenty of trouble with when I started playing due to the speed of it) and even things like hopping were things I was explaining. How unfortunate I had forgotten to mention the "How to play KOF" video on YouTube.
Unrelated to KOF but when we popped in Persona, I three-peated one of the enthusiasts of the game who I believe goes by the name of Black, despite my relative lack of experience with the game. Oh Yukiko, chuck them fans at Chie's head. My playstyle was described as "incredibly annoying, but it works."
I hope that we can manage to have another meet up before I PCS. I'm hoping my one playing partner (who mains King, Kyo, Saiki, and Mr. Karate) can come if there's another meet up so I can demonstrate how a match flows, maybe even capture some gameplay on Xero15's streaming equipment.